


lessons in natural history

by prongs117



Category: The Little Mermaid (1989)
Genre: F/M, Non-Canonical Character Death, she didn't marry him in the end, slight AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 10:50:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15141479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prongs117/pseuds/prongs117
Summary: He was loath to admit it but he understood now the impulse that would drive someone to capture and pin a particularly rare species of the Lepidoptera.





	lessons in natural history

His grandfather was something of a collector. By the end of his long reign, he had amassed enough objects from various parts of the globe to fill three cavernous rooms in the old castle. Although he was not a scientific man he deemed the natural world a treasure trove of exotic and rare artifacts. Consequently his collection contained stuffed birds with brilliant plumage, sleek predatory cats, jewel-bright butterflies, skeletons of unknown origin with supernumerary heads, blood-red corals and unclassified wonders from the bottom of the sea. 

Into this veritable _wunderkammer_ , Eric had visited only once. He never met his grandfather who, by accounts of the court historians, was a fierce and ruthless ruler. It was he who secured the throne against threats from within and without. His father was a more gentle creature who collected books and recited poetry. It was his father who showed him the wondrous collection for reasons he could not properly remember now. He only remembered the grotesque marvels he saw—ivory tusks, slavering beasts, exquisite lacy wings. It disturbed his twelve-year-old imagination.

However he had no time to contemplate these treasures because not long after this, his life suddenly, drastically changed. His parents died and he was left all alone, barely prepared for the business of ruling. He had to learn, fast, how to survive into the role he had been born into.

He would have thought no more about the cabinet of curiosities locked somewhere in his castle had it not been for _her_. Just as his parents’ death abruptly changed the course of his life, the siren-turned-woman who was now his lover changed everything.

They had been together for some months when he noticed her penchant for collecting seemingly random objects from her wanderings. As a result, his—well, their—bedroom was now home to a collection of discarded keys, pieces of colored glass, curiously shaped rocks, bits of lace and other minutiae of everyday life. He asked her about these and that was when he heard about her now-destroyed underwater cavern that she had filled with the salvaged items of wrecks. For the first time since childhood that he remembered the other collection that he now, presumably, owned.

**

“Are you sure this is the right direction? Most of these rooms have been left to ruin.”

It was just after sunset on a cold autumn day that he asked her to go with him to the old part of the castle. He didn't her why but she, always ready for an adventure, eagerly assented.

“Yes—well, maybe. There was a door here somewhere…”

“That’s awfully specific of you.”

He grinned. “Don’t worry, I’ll protect you if ghosts start coming out of the walls.”

She rolled her eyes and he laughed, the sound echoing off the stone walls.

After a few more minutes of turning down narrow long-forgotten hallways, he finally arrived at a familiar passageway.

“Yes, I think this is the one. There should be a door with a griffin for a keyhole…or was it a dragon?”

“This one, I think,” she said, drawing his attention to a small wooden door at the end of the hall.

“We could try. Hold up the lantern for me if you please,” he said, going through the ring of keys he brought with him.

Finally one fit through and the door creaked open on its rusted hinges. She stepped through first, peering through the gloom with the fitful lantern light.

He could tell the moment she realized what she was looking at from her audible gasp of surprise followed by excited swinging of the lantern light as she turned from one display to the next, trying to take it all in.

“Careful, the stones might have fallen in,” he said softly, but he could tell she was no longer listening and had already moved on to the adjoining chamber.

**

The glass-fronted cabinets of the next room held preserved bodies of amphibious creatures in glass jars interspersed with the stuffed leathery bodies of massive reptiles. It was the central display though that he saw held her attention. Above the mounted polar bears and stuffed walruses, the complete skeleton of an enormous humpback whale hung from the rafters. He could not imagine how he could have forgotten about that. It was an impressive site, a leviathan swooping down as if to devour visitors who dared disturb its afterlife.

And just beside this marvel, a much smaller skeleton of a—mermaid.

Now, he didn’t know how he could have forgotten _that_. She had seen it too, he realized. 

“No,” she whispered in the still air. 

“Ariel, I’m sorry…I didn’t realize—“

“I think I’ve seen enough. Let’s go.”

He stood rooted to the spot though, horrified at the display but unable to look away. Finally he came to himself when he heard the wooden door slam closed. Taking one last look at the skeletal remains, he hurried after her.

**

He woke up before the sun. Truth be told, he had not slept properly at all. Images of strange creatures trapped behind glass cases haunted his dreams. At one point, he dreamed that she had become part of the collection. A live mermaid in a grimy glass tank while curious aristocrats gawked and pointed at her. It was this gruesome scene that abruptly brought him to consciousness and he breathed a sigh of relief when he turned and saw her at his side, safe and asleep.

The pale blue light of dawn made her features seem more otherworldly than usual. It was as if some spirit of the air drifted down from its perch to spend the night in his bed. 

In a way, that was an apt description of their strange relationship. He was never quite sure when she would leave for another one of her travels and when she would come back to him and how long she would stay. It was far from ideal and to most of his court, it was a downright scandal, but he had come to accept it as the price had to pay to be with her.

He was loath to admit it but he understood now the impulse that would drive someone to capture and pin a particularly rare species of the Lepidoptera.

**

Much to his surprise, he found out the next day that she had gone back to the collection rooms by herself. He found here there gazing in sympathy at the skeletal display that disturbed his sleep. Did she dream of them too?

“What are you doing here?” he asked trifle harshly.

“Have them removed please,” she answered in a toneless voice.

“Yes, of course.” He should have done it yesterday. 

“Tell me something. Your grandfather. He kept all these—things here for his own amusement and glorification. He evidently thought he had the right to them. Are you like that?”

Was he like that? Did he strive to conquer and claim what he could in pursuit of more riches and power? He had never thought himself to be especially avaricious when it came to gold. He coveted power, yes, but only as a means to an end. But he knew she was not referring to either of those things. 

“Yes,” he admitted simply. It was the unadorned truth when it came to her, the exquisite beauty of his life he longed to possess.

“Then promise me something: don’t be.”

“Is this why you won’t marry me?” 

It was that vexed question again. 

“You know why. I’ve already told you.”

“I would give you all the freedom you wanted,” he said desperately, knowing nothing had changed since the last time he told her this.

She made a sound of disbelief. “You are the king. You and I both know things would change the moment I married you. Things we can’t control.”

It was futile, he realized. The more he tried to tie himself to her, the more he would drive her away. And he knew his world was not kind to women like her. 

“What then? We can’t go on this way forever, Ariel. You know we can’t.”

She nodded sadly at the impossible situation they were in. She did not have any easy answers at the moment so instead she indicated one of the mounted beasts beside her. “If a manticore can find its way into your castle, I’m sure we will find a way out of our conundrum.”

He smiled at her attempt at humour. He was not sure he believed in manticores or dragons or half the creatures in these wonder rooms but he believed in mermaids. Especially one who came out of the sea to save him and who saw wonder in broken pottery pieces and discarded cutlery. He would have to be content with that for now.


End file.
